How amazing would it be if your favorite iOS app no longer required you to type in information in order to use it? Imagine something like Google Voice Search, but in any number of apps and with the precision of something like Nuance’s voice-to-text technology instead of Google’s hit-or-miss version. Well that just became possible with Nuance’s announcement that they will be providing access to the Dragon Mobile SDK for iOS AND Android. This will be accomplished through a new self-service website that is part of the new Nuance Mobile Developer Program. This new program will make the same voice-to-text power that is currently available in apps such as Siri Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve babbled plenty about how much I like free stuff and giveaways.  Scottevest, iTunes apps, even jejune things like cables and plugs . . . when it’s free, it’s pretty much all good.  So I’m pretty happy to be able to say: iKit, a licensed Apple accessory brand, will be giving away an iPad to one lucky winner! The contest just opened this week! People must simply like iKit’s Facebook page and follow iKit on Twitter for a chance to win. On February 11th a random winner will be chosen! iKit will also be giving away 10 iPad Exec Cases Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Just before I left for CES Elana got an 11″ MacBook Air and made it her main computer. I encouraged her to upgrade from the stock 64GB of storage but she said not to, after all, she does little to nothing with movies and music on her Mac so she really doesn’t need the space. I dutifully ordered the computer she said she wanted but INSISTED that she at least upgrade to 4GB of RAM. After all, with the MBA you can’t easily upgrade ANY of the components and the 4GB upgrade makes a HUGE difference. The MBA was a good call for her since, when I met up with her here in Mexico last week she had… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Two cool bits of classic PC gaming news: first off, the complete Zork Anthology as well as Police Quest 1 – 4 are now available on Good Old games, for the great price of $5.99 for Zork and $9.99 for Police Quest. About Zork, the site says: The Anthology includes Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, and Planetfall. This means six titles in total, all hailing from the 1980s, weighing in at a whopping nine megabytes. Yep, that means just around one floppy disk per game. That means plain text and gameplay based on text input, but beneath the rough exterior lies a beauty that’s hard Continue reading on Gear Diary …

To celebrate the launch of Treasure Seekers 2: The Enchanted Canvases for iPhone and iPad, G5 Entertainment is holding a contest! The game, which I have been thoroughly enjoying for the last few days, is another classic ‘hidden object’ game in which you need to solve puzzles by uncovering the secrets of enchanted paintings to solve a mystery and find your brother. There are loads of great mini-games as well! Anyway, right now they are having a contest that will end up with 5 people winning copies of this game for either the iPad or iPhone! Here are some details: What other paintings would you like to enter Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Toyota first launched its Scion division of vehicles aimed at younger, hipper consumers the buying public threw them for a loop. The funky new box on wheels (dubbed “xB”) was actually being snatched up by boomers hand over fist.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last week when I reviewed Majesty 2 I gave it a strong recommendation and pretty much fawned all over it. I was quite fond of the game when it was released in late 2009, but something happened since then. In order to play the Kingmaker expansion I had reinstalled Majesty 2 on my new laptop and needed to plow through the original again – and I found myself enjoying it more than ever! The mix of the joyfully light-hearted feel and intense challenge was very rewarding, and I couldn’t wait to see what Kingmaker had to offer. The Hype: What is the connection between the nightmares of Lord Blackviper… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

We love watching our kids pursue everything in their lives with zeal and vigor – and love seeing the joy when they accomplish something with passion. Last Friday both of my boys were listed in the newspaper for ‘Highest Honors’, and of course that is a proud moment but one we knew about since report cards came out well before Christmas. But it was enough that I handed over something my younger son had known I had received earlier in the week – the XBOX 360 version of The Orange Box, a 2007 video game collection from Valve software that includes the excellent FPS Half-Life 2, multiplayer game Team Fortress 2, and introduced… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s kinda interesting to me, the coincidences life sometimes tosses at you.  Like this particular news piece, for example  Just today, as I plowed through my Twitter feed, I followed a link to a post talking about the supposed fragmentation of the Android market, and whether that’s a bad thing, a good thing, or a neutral thing that one simply has to accept in an open platform environment.  I have no opinion, not being one of Gear Diary’s resident Android folks, but it’s a fascinating discussion. And then I started to do this news piece . . . about a new Android phone!  Funny old thing, life, eh? In any event, Alltel and LG are getting together to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Way back in November, all of two months ago (I know, eons in internet time!) Apple promised a day that would change everything – or something like that. We all knew what was coming, and on November 16th The Beatles catalog arrived on iTunes. There were many who believed that it was too little, too late. The Beatles box set was already out for over a year on Amazon, and millions of copies of their 13 records had sold. Others thought their was a ‘pent up demand’ that would spring forth on release. Within a week reports let us know that the group had sold two million songs and 450,000 albums – vindicating the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When Dino showed up at CES he brought with him his 11″ notebook. With its thick, bold case and bright blue lights the notebook was impressive and was the antithesis of my MacBook Air. It was, of course, an Alienware notebook. Yes, the Alienware notebook can only be described as being “cool” and it is today’s Gear Deal. Here are the core specs. The 11.6″ Dell Alienware m11x has a 1.3GHz ULV Core 2 Duo processor and a 1GB GeForce GT 335M discrete GPU. The screen is a WLED 720p LCD. It has a 1.3-Megapixel Webcam, 802.11n WiFi, 2GB DDR3 memory, 160GB Hard Drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS. In other words, it may… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

While I had heard of the original Majesty, I never played it back in 2001 when it was released and never caught up with it. So while fans of the game might have different thoughts based on comparisons with the original, I got to be amazed for the first time at this wonderful combination of city builder, RTS and RPG. Since then, there have been two expansions I have played and enjoyed and a third about to release as I write this. After those other expansions were released I went back through the whole game once more. And I have to say I really was amazed and surprised at how some fairly simple… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The first night Elana and I were here in Cabo we had dinner at one of the sit down restaurants here at the resort. A nice young guy came by and asked if we wanted a picture taken. We politely declined. On the way out we saw him uploading some of the photos using his MacBook Pro and his iPad. Of course I had to strike up a conversation. Turns out Samir is French, and had originally come here for an internship in hospitality management. He had decided to come back and start his photography business with a friend. I told him about Dragon Dictation and said goodnight. A short time later he emailed. He… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I had already started a post about the numbers showing just how badly live rock music did in 2010, and then analysts started tearing apart the top-selling music charts for the year and found some similar trends. I know, I know, rock is dead … long live rock! But given that the rock industry is very much powered by money, unlike the niche folk / jazz / classical markets which have gotten by on scant scraps for decades, these recent developments are a definite concern. In his article called Rock and Roll (1949-2011), Marc Myers says: According to an article by Ethan Smith in last week’s Wall Street Journal Continue reading on Gear Diary …

All over the internet yesterday there were mentions of Kanye West tweeting the above in reaction to Britney Spears new single “Hold It Against Me” holding the #1 spot on the pop charts this week. OK … now most normal people, regardless of their opinion of Kanye West (I think he is arrogant, self-important, self-absorbed and with way too high an opinion of his skills) should recognize this as a joke based on his now infamous rude upstaging of Taylor Swift at some generic awards show I can’t recall. Yet all over the place folks are getting their knickers in a twist over it, as reported here: Britney Spears’ latest single “Hold Continue reading on Gear Diary …